Domain name hijack protection

ABSTRACT

A domain name registering entity (such as a domain registry, registrar, or reseller) or an independent proxy registration service may offer a domain name hijack protection to their actual or potential customers. When a domain name transfer request or notice is received in a proxy email address listed in the domain name&#39;s WHOIS records, the domain name registering entity or the proxy registration service may ignore or decline it. Customers may be given an ability to turn the domain name hijack protection service on and off, as well as an ability to adjust a variety of settings associated with the service.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/746,047 to Robert R. Parsons filed on May 8, 2007 and titled “DomainName Hijack Protection,” which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/498,500 to Parsons et. al. filed on Aug. 2, 2006and titled “Systems and Methods for Domain Name Registration By Proxy,”now U.S. Pat. No. 7,996,457 issued on Aug. 9, 2011, which is adivisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/624,883 to Parsons et.al. filed on Jul. 21, 2003 and titled “Systems and Methods for DomainName Registration By Proxy,” now U.S. Pat. No. 7,130,878 issued on Oct.31, 2006, which is a U.S. National Stage continuation of PCT PatentApplication No. PCT/US02/27742 to Parsons et. al. filed on Aug. 30, 2002in the U.S. Receiving Office and titled “Method and Systems for DomainName Registration and Email by Proxy.”

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/746,047 is also acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/526,107 toParsons et. al. filed Feb. 28, 2005 and titled “Proxy Email Method andSystem,” now U.S. Pat. No. 7,627,633 issued on Dec. 1, 2009, which is aU.S. National Stage continuation of PCT Patent Application No.PCT/US02/27956 to Parsons et. al. filed on Aug. 30, 2002 in the U.S.Receiving Office and titled “Proxy Email Method and System.”

The subject matter of all patent applications is commonly owned andassigned to Go Daddy Operating Company, LLC. All prior applications areincorporated herein in their entirety by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates in general to a method and system fordomain name registration and, more particularly, to a method and systemfor domain name protection using private domain name registration.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The Internet comprises a vast number of computers and computer networksthat are interconnected through communication links. The interconnectedcomputers exchange information using various services, such aselectronic mail, Gopher, and the World Wide Web (“WWW”). The WWW serviceallows a server computer system (i.e., Web server or Web site) to sendgraphical Web pages of information to a remote client computer system.The remote client computer system can then display the Web pages. Eachresource (e.g., computer or Web page) of the WWW is uniquelyidentifiable by a Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”). To view a specificWeb page, a client computer system specifies the URL for the Web page ina request (e.g., a HyperText Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”) request). Thesefollow the familiar format http://www.xxx.com uniquely identifying theparticular resource. The request is forwarded to the Web server thatsupports that Web page to the client computer system. When the clientcomputer system receives that Web page, it typically displays the Webpage using a browser. A browser is a special-purpose application programthat effects the requesting of Web pages and the displaying of Webpages.

Currently, Web pages are typically defined using HyperText MarkupLanguage (“HTML”). HTML provides a standard set of tags that define howa Web page is to be displayed. When a user indicates to the browser todisplay a Web page, the browser sends a request to the server computersystem to transfer to the client computer system an HTML document thatdefines the Web page. When the requested HTML document is received bythe client computer system, the browser displays the Web page as definedby the HTML document. The HTML document contains various tags thatcontrol the displaying of text, graphics, controls, and other features.The HTML document may contain URLs or other Web pages available on thatserver computer system or other server computer systems.

Generally a Web page's address or URL is made up of the name of theserver along with the path to the file or the server. Rather than usinga Web hosting service's server name as their URL, most companies andmany individuals and other entities prefer a “domain name” of their ownchoosing. In other words, the Ford Motor Company probably would preferhttp://www.ford.com as its URL rather than, say,http://servername.com/˜ford, where “servername” is the name of a Webhosting service whose server The Ford Motor Company uses. For thispurpose then a “domain name,” e.g. “ford” can be registered, ifavailable, and the hosting service will use that URL for its customer'sWeb address.

The process of registering one's own domain name proceeds as follows:Referring to FIG. 1 shown there are the various entities thatparticipate in the registration of a domain name. The communicationslike those shown here and in other Figures of the drawings are typicallycommunications via the Internet, but could be direct LAN, or WANconnections, telephone land line or cell phone links, communications byRF or optic fibers among others. An individual, company, small businessor other entity 20 (hereinafter “customer”) desires to obtain his/herown domain name using one or more of the Internet Corporation forAssigned Names & Numbers (“ICANN”) approved top level domain (“TLD”)name extensions (e.g., .com, .net, .org, .us, .biz, etc.). All domainsare organized through a shared, central domain name registration system.There is one domain name registration system, or registry 22 for each ofthe ICANN-approved TLDs. Each registry 22 is operated and maintained byan ICANN-approved company 20. The entities 20, 24 and 22 in FIG. 1include, of course, computer installations equipped typically forInternet communication. FIG. 1 assumes that the customer 20 has a serveror servers. It may, however, contract with another, a host who providesservers as is conventional. This does not change the relationship of theentities involved here and so is not separately shown.

The process for registering a domain name with a particular registryrequires a customer to use an ICANN accredited registrar 24. Forexample, John Doe wishes to register the following domain name:“johndoe.com”. Initially, John Doe must verify whether the desireddomain name is or is not available, by contacting the ICANN-accreditedregistrar 24. Utilizing a database search engine run by the registrar24, at 30 in FIG. 2, JohnDoe can ascertain whether “johndoe.com” hasalready been registered by another customer by requesting the domainname from the registrar at 32. The registrar determines if the domainname is available at 34. If the desired domain name has not beenregistered, the registrar so advises the customer, at 35. The customercan proceed with the registration, utilizing the services of any ICANNapproved registrar.

Regardless of the registrar used to process the registration, thecustomer must (together with payment of the registrar's applicablefees), provide certain personal information at 36 in order to completethe registration. That information includes the customer's address andpersonal contact information including email addresses, phone numbersand mailing addresses of administrative and technical contacts. Theregistrar stores the customer contact information and domain name in atemporary, working contact table at 38. Thereafter, with theregistration request, the registrar transmits, at 40, certaininformation to the registry regarding both the registrar and thecustomer, who will, upon completion of the registration process, beidentified as the “registrant” of the domain that is now officiallyregistered with the registry. The registry adds, at 42, the domain name,the registrant's name and identification of the registrar to the part 23of the WHOIS database 27 kept by the registry. The registry confirmsregistration at 46. The registration process is concluded by theregistrar confirming the registration to the customer at 52 and 54.

Upon completion of the registration process at 41, certain identifyinginformation is made publicly available in a database managed by eachregistrar. This is the registrar's portion 25 of the WHOIS database 27shown on FIG. 1. For each registered domain name, the registrar's WHOISdatabase identifies the name of registrar, the registrar's “WHOIS”homepage link, the date the domain name was registered and the domainname's expiration date. The WHOIS database also makes public theregistrant's personally identifiable information, specifically theregistrant's name and postal address, phone number and email address,the name of administrative and technical contacts, and their respectivepostal address, voice and fax telephone numbers and email addresses andthe name of the servers upon which the registered domain name islocated.

The registrar's WHOIS database is accessible by anyone who has Internetaccess, anywhere and anytime. Although the use to which WHOIS data canbe put is limited by ICANN, the registrant's personally identifiableinformation is required to be readily available to the public, includingthose who would seek to engage in data mining, SPAMMING, or otherpotentially undesirable activities. A typical WHOIS record from aregistrar is shown in FIG. 10.

For certain domain name registrants, it would be desirable if thepersonal contact information required to be displayed on the WHOISdatabase were not available. For example, a celebrity who wishes toparticipate in activities on the WWW might not want her identity andother information known so as to avoid harassment, stalking, hacking,data mining or simply “prying eyes.” It would be desirable if suchpersons could anonymously participate in Web-related activities, evenhaving a home page, without their true identity being known, but withoutviolating the rules set down by ICANN. Typically, domain name ownersreceive email at an email address that contains their domain nameordinarily. For example, xxx@yyy.com is an email address where yyy isthe registrant's domain name. Because of the availability of theregistrant's email address on the WHOIS record available from theregistrar, a member of the public can address email to the registrant.In addition to shielding its domain name registrant from unwantedcontact including harassment, stalking, prying, and the like, it couldbe desirable to keep the domain name registrant's email addressconfidential. It could further be desirable in many instances for thatregistrant to have access to the email intended for it without having topublish its email address for all to see. In addition it could bedesirable to the anonymous Web participant to respond anonymously toemail or to originate email anonymously.

Filtering of email messages to preclude junk email, SPAM, unauthorizedbulk email, unauthorized commercial email, pornography, viruses, worms,Trojan horses, and other harmful submissions would often be desirable,as well.

Domain hijacking is another growing problem on the Internet. Domainhijacking is obtaining control over a domain name illegally. Domainhijackers may transfer a domain name to themselves or change the contactinformation and/or Name Servers in WHOIS records. Protection from domainhijacking is also desired.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with this invention, a system and method for theregistration of domain names employs a proxy entity (“proxy”) tomaintain the confidentiality of a domain name owner. A would-be domainname registrant can choose to have its desired domain name registered inthe name of the proxy. The publicly available registrant informationlists just the proxy's personal contact information.

Email intended for the customer is diverted to the proxy registrantwhose email address appears on the publicly available registrationinformation WHOIS. The proxy can, if the customer desires, filter outunwanted email, block all email, or forward all email to the customer.

Contractually, the customer enjoys the full rights of ownership of thedomain name. The customer can: cancel the proxy's services anytime inwhich case ownership of the domain name will revert back to the privateregistrant; sell, transfer or assign the domain name to anyone else, inwhich event the purchaser, transferee or assignee will become theofficial “registrant” of record with the applicable registry; controland/or manage each domain name, including designating the IP address towhich each domain name points; cancel each domain name's registration;renew each domain name upon its expiration; and have a right of firstrefusal should proxy's ownership of the domain name become subject tocreditor's claims. The system permits the customer to cancel the proxyregistration at any time by two clicks on a Web page. Upon that command,the registrar who has registered the domain name in the name of theproxy transfers the domain name to the customer, using the customer'sactual contact information.

Typically the communications among the involved participants are amongcomputer installations via the Internet. But, without departing from theinvention, they could be by those other communication modes mentionedabove.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a would-be domainname customer contacts the registrar who then checks with the registryto see if the domain name is available. If it is, the registrar soadvises the customer, requests the customer's personal contactinformation and asks if the customer chooses to register by proxy. Ofcourse, this is done by interactive screens that are a part of theregistrar's Web site.

If the customer declines to register by proxy, then the registrarcompletes registration in the ordinary fashion. In that case, it will bethe customer's personal contact information and email address thatappears in the WHOIS records as usual.

On the other hand, if the customer decides to register by proxy, theregistrar temporarily records the customer's personal contactinformation in a temporary, working table. The registrar contacts theproxy entity and obtains from the proxy entity the personal contactinformation of the proxy entity. The registrar then registers the chosendomain name in the name of the proxy and gives the proxy's personalcontact information. The proxy, then, is the actual registrant and ownsthe domain name. As stated, however, all of the rights of ownership arecontractually made available to the customer. The registrar gives to theproxy the customer's personal contact information, and the proxy storesthat in a permanent record along with the domain name. The registrarstores the proxy's name, the domain name, and the proxy's personalcontact information and email address in its permanent database record,which is the registrar's portion of the WHOIS database.

Once the registrar completes the registration, the proxy will notify theindividual, via email, that an account with the proxy has been openedand request that the individual “click” on a link to activate theaccount. The individual will also be given a password so that theindividual can access his/her proxy account.

If the customer chooses, email intended for the customer will go to theproxy if the sender has determined the email address from the WHOISrecord or from another location such as a Web site or print medialisting the proxy email address. During the registration process, theregistrar has the customer indicate whether it wishes to receive allemail addressed to the proxy email address, no email addressed to thataddress, or email from which objectionable mail has been filtered.

If filtration is chosen by the customer during registration, then theproxy uses familiar filtration principles based on key words in themessage, known SPAM originators in the “from” field, and the number ofaddressees in either the “from” or the “cc:” field to determine if thereis objectionable content, if the email has come from a known source ofSPAM, or if the email is being emailed in bulk.

Of course the described operations are effected through programming atthe registrar and the proxy entity. When the proxy's email serverreceives email it determines whether it is real email for the proxy oremail intended for a customer. Email addressed to the proxy entity thatis to be forwarded has its message stripped and copied into an emailfrom the proxy along with the sender's email identity and the alert that“this message was sent to you at the proxy email address.”

The methods of the present invention may further provide domain namehijack protection by ignoring or declining domain name transfer requestsand notices.

The above and further objects and advantages will be better understoodwith reference to the following detailed description of at least onepreferred embodiment taken in consideration with the accompanyingdrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the relationship between theparticipants in a prior art domain name registration process;

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram in flowchart form illustrating themethod of domain name registration typically employed in a prior artregistration process;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram like FIG. 1 showing the relationship ofparticipants in a domain name registration process according to thisinvention;

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram like FIG. 2 in flowchart formshowing the process of proxy domain name registration in accordance withthis invention;

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram in flowchart form showing the stepsin cancellation of proxy registration in accordance with this invention;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the relationship of participants in atypical email process;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram like FIG. 6 showing the participants in aproxy email process according to this invention;

FIG. 8 is a functional block diagram in flowchart form illustrating aportion of the proxy registration process by which proxy email isaffected.

FIG. 9 is a functional block diagram in flowchart form illustrating theproxy email process;

FIG. 10 is an exemplary WHOIS record available from a registrar;

FIG. 11 is a screen shot illustrating an initial screen by which acustomer initiates registration by proxy;

FIG. 12 is a screen shot and illustrates a screen by which a customercan set his choices for email and input his contact's identification;

FIG. 13 is a screen shot of a screen by which a customer can accept maildelivery of mail to the proxy address appearing on the WHOIS record;

FIG. 14 is a screen shot showing a screen by which the customer cancancel proxy registration;

FIG. 15 is a screen shot showing a screen by which a customer can accessmessages from the proxy; and

FIGS. 16-17 are flowcharts showing the process of domain hijackprotection using proxy domain name registration.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Turning to FIG. 3, the participants in a domain name registration byproxy include the customer 20, the registrar 24, the registry 22, andthe proxy entity 60. Each of the registrar 24 and registry 22 has apermanent record portion 23, 25 of the WHOIS database 27. The registry'sportion 23 lists domain name, registrant, and registrar information. Theregistrar's portion 25 lists the information shown in FIG. 10, arepresentative WHOIS record from a registrar. The customer, registrarand proxy computer installations are typically in communication via theInternet. The registrar and registry are in communication, againtypically by Internet. The public indicated at 29 has available to itvia the Internet the WHOIS records in the databases maintained by theregistry and the registrar.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, proxy registration proceeds as follows. Justas in the prior art FIG. 2 a procedure, the customer visits registrar'sWeb site and requests registration at 62. The customer may be referredfrom a proxy's screen like that illustrated in FIG. 11. The registrarcomputer installation receives the request including the desired domainname at 64. It verifies availability at 66 by checking with the registryat 68 and advises the customer at 69. As indicated at 70, customerpersonal contact information, and in this case, a proxy request issupplied to the registrar. The registrar receives it at 72. Theregistrar stores the customer personal contact information in computermemory in a temporary, working contact table at 74. At 76 theregistrar's computer program enters a decision block. If no proxyrequest has been made the program continues as in FIG. 2. If, as here,proxy registration has been requested, then the registrar's programdeparts from the prior art FIG. 2 procedure and submits, at 77, thecustomer's personal contact information to the proxy at 78. At 80 theproxy stores the customer's personal information in its permanentdatabase. The proxy then sends its personal contact information to theregistrar at 82. Upon receipt of the proxy contact information at 84,the registrar sends a request for registration of the domain name andthe proxy personal contact information to the registry at 86. At 88, theregistry receives the request and records the domain name along with theproxy registrant identification and the registrar information in itsWHOIS portion 23. Then at 90 the registry confirms the registration.

Upon receiving the confirmation from the registry at 92, the registrarstores the proxy contact information in its permanent table that formsits portion of the WHOIS database 25, at 94 the registrar confirms theregistration to the customer, who receives that confirmation at 96.

By a screen shown in FIG. 14, the proxy entity affords the customer theopportunity to cancel proxy registration. The customer checks therelevant domain name by clicking on one or more of the boxes 98 providedand then by clicking on the cancel proxy button 100. As shown in FIG. 5a, at 102, by clicking on the cancel proxy button the customer sends thecancel order to the proxy at 104. The proxy retrieves the relevantcustomer contact information at 106. At 108 the proxy requests transferof the registration by the registrar, which receives that request at110. At 112, the registrar pulls the proxy contact information. Theregistrar then sends the request for transfer along with both the proxycontact information and the customer contact information at 114 to theregistry at 116. The registry effects transfer as shown at 118, FIG. 5b. The registry updates its portion 23 of the WHOIS database and at 120sends a confirmation to the registrar which is received at 122. Theregistrar updates its portion 25 of the WHOIS database and then sendsconfirmation at 124 to the customer, who receives it at 126.

FIG. 7 shows the relationship of the participants in a proxy emailaddress management system. As previously, the proxy 60 is the proxydomain name registrant. Email senders 29 who learn of the proxyregistrant's email address from WHOIS 27, or from another source, sendtheir email to the proxy email address as indicated at 130. The proxy 60forwards such email as the customer has indicated he or she isinterested in receiving. This is indicated at 132.

As shown in the screen shot of FIG. 12, the customer 29 was given anumber of filtration choices at 134. The customer can elect to have allemail forwarded by the proxy 60, to filter called “junk email” or not tohave mail sent to the proxy email address forwarded.

Returning to FIG. 7 in one embodiment, the customer 20 who desires tosend email of his or her own addresses the mail to the proxy who thenforwards the mail under its own proxy email address. In this embodiment,the customer's email address is not revealed. Alternatively, the proxyonly forwards email to the customer. The customer then, if he or she sodesires, responds to those emails of interest under its own emailaddress.

FIG. 8 shows the process by which proxy email is established. After ithas been determined that the domain name is available as previouslydescribed, the customer 20 is prompted for his or her contactinformation including email address. the customer is also prompted toindicate proxy domain name registration is desired and whether proxyemail is desired. If so, the customer's filter choices are to beindicated as indicated at the location 134 on the screen of FIG. 12. Thecustomer responds at 180. The registrar receives the contact informationincluding the email address at 182. It stores these at 184. At thedecision block 186, it is determined whether a proxy request has beenmade. If not, the program proceeds as in FIG. 2. If yes is the answer,the registrar submits customer personal information to the proxyincluding the email address and filter choices at 188 in FIG. 8 b. Theproxy receives the information at 190 and stores it in its permanentdatabase at 192. At 194 the proxy also stores the email address inassociation with the proxy email address and filter choices. At proxy 60of FIG. 7, for each customer that requests to be registered for proxyemail, the email address management system creates a virtual emailaddress according to naming conventions and associates it with thatcustomer's account. At 196 in FIG. 8 c the proxy sends proxy informationincluding the virtual email address to the registrar, which theregistrar receives at 198. The registrar sends the request for domainname registration with the identification of the proxy as the registrantand the registrar information to the registry at 200. The registryrecords this information in its portion 23 of WHOIS at 202. The registryconfirms registration at 204. The registrar receives that confirmationat 206. At 208 the registrar stores the proxy contact information in itspermanent table along with the email address of the proxy and thisappears in the WHOIS record 25 administered by the registrar. Theregistrar then confirms the registration to the customer who receives itat 208. The customer receives the confirmation at 210. The customer isnow set up to receive email filtered as desired.

The proxy email address management system of the proxy uses thefollowing standards. For the domain name “DomainA.com” the virtual emailaddress dbp.DomainA.com@DomainsByProxy.com is assigned. Thus, thevirtual email address is unique to each domain and conflict with a realemail address on DomainsByProxy.com, the domain name of the proxy, isimprobable.

At the proxy installation an email server is set up to accept emails forthe proxy's email address domain. The processing of email by the proxyis shown in FIG. 9. At 136, the proxy computer installation receivesemail from a sender such as one of the individuals 29 in FIG. 7. At 138,the proxy sender determines it's an email intended for a customer andlooks up the customer email addresses and filter preferences. The emailserver is configured to send all of the incoming proxy email messages toa common “catch-all” account. Email messages for the email server arestored according to RFC821 (SMTP) requirements. The email addressmanagement system periodically checks each account for new emailmessages via the known POP protocol. This polling model was chosen toseparate the email address management system from the email server.Thereby, the email server does not need to have intrinsic knowledge ofthe management system. The management system is therefore capable ofusing any email server that supports the POP protocol.

When new email is found, the system iterates through each email found onthe email server. For each message, it checks the “To:” addresses andthe “Cc:” addresses for virtual email addresses being served by theproxy. If it finds one, it retrieves the real email address for thatcustomer and that customer's email forwarding preference. At 140 it isdetermined whether the customer has chosen to filter out all email. Ifthat is the case, the program is ended at 132. If the answer is no, thenit is determined whether the customer has sought to filter out junkemail, e.g., SPAM, bulk advertisements, etc. If the answer at thedecision block 144 is yes, then the proxy uses known programs todetermine, based on key words in the message, whether the message islikely to be SPAM, pornography, or other objectionable content. Thenumber of recipients is checked in the “To:” or “Cc:” fields todetermine if this is likely bulk solicitations or mailings and these arefiltered out. Email from known purveyors of SPAM, bulk mailings and adscan be filtered out. Once filtration is done, the remaining emails are,at 148, stripped of their message, copied into an email from the proxyto the customer. It is sent to the customer along with the sender'semail address and a message that the email was received by the proxy.The email is then forwarded to the customer at 150. Once every emailaddress for that message has been checked for proxy users, it is deletedfrom the host email server.

As shown in FIG. 15, in addition to email, the customer can receivemessages directly from the proxy 60. These are typically messagesbearing on the status of the account and also messages that can indicatethe receipt of surface mail. Remembering that the contact information inWHOIS includes the proxy's address, persons desirous of sending surfacemail will from time to time address that surface mail to the mailingaddress in the contact information. FIG. 13 is a screen shotillustrating the proxy's communication of, in this case, the receipt ofa complaint instituting a suit against the customer. This is shown atthe field 212. At 214 the customer is given the opportunity to say thathe or she does wish to receive this mail, or at 216 the customer isgiven an opportunity to decline receiving the mail.

Private domain name registration may further be used to safeguard domainnames. Private domain name registration in itself may serve as a domainname hijack preventive measure because a malicious person does not haveaccess to the registrant's contact information, thus it's harder toimpersonate the registrant to obtain control over the domain name.Domain hijacking is typically done by initiating domain name transferrequests or notices in anticipation that a valid domain name owner wouldaccept such requests or overlook the notices. The domain name transferrequest is an email message requesting domain name transfer thatrequires an affirmative action on the part of the current registrant;the domain name transfer notice is an email message notifying thecurrent registrant that transfer of the domain name will go forwardwithin a predetermined period of time unless the current registrantspecifically declines it.

Referring to FIG. 16, a domain name registering entity (such as a domainregistry, registrar, or reseller) or an independent proxy registrationservice may offer a domain name hijack protection to their actual orpotential customers (Step 1605). The domain name hijack protection maybe offered as a standalone service or may be bundled with otherproducts, e.g. private registration service. It may be a paid service ormay be included for free with other products. With direction from thecustomer, the domain name hijack protection service may be applied to adomain name with a private registration service (Step 1610). When adomain name transfer request is received in a proxy email address listedin the domain name's WHOIS records (Step 1615), the domain nameregistering entity or the proxy registration service may ignore it (Step1620). Ignoring may include deleting the domain name transfer requestwithout forwarding it to the customer. Optionally, a notificationdescribing that the transfer request was ignored may be sent to thecustomer.

Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 17, when a domain name transfer noticeis received in the proxy email address listed in the domain name's WHOISrecords (Step 1715), the domain name registering entity or the proxyregistration service may decline it (Step 1720). The transfer notice maybe declined using an automated means or by human intervention, typicallyby following a particular link in the transfer notice. Optionally, anotification describing that the transfer notice was declined may besent to the customer.

The customer may be given an ability to turn the domain name hijackprotection service on and off, as well as an ability to adjust a varietyof settings associated with the service.

The foregoing descriptions of at least one preferred embodiment areexemplary and not intended to limit the claimed invention. Obviousmodifications that do not depart from the spirit and scope of theinvention as claimed in the following claims will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method, executed on one or morecomputers, comprising the steps of: a) receiving a domain name transfernotice via a proxy email address stored in a WHOIS record and whichdiffers from an actual email address associated with a domain nameregistered to a customer using the contact information of a proxyregistration service provider for a private registration, and b)declining said domain name transfer notice without forwarding saiddomain name transfer notice to a registrant of said domain name.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising a step of: c) registering saiddomain name prior to receiving said domain name transfer notice.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising a step of: c) offering a domainname hijack protection service prior to receiving said domain nametransfer notice.
 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising a step of:d) applying said domain name hijack protection service to said domainname.
 5. The method of claim 3, further comprising a step of: d)providing an ability to turn said domain name hijack protection serviceon or off.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising a step of: c)applying said private registration to said domain name prior toreceiving said domain name transfer request.
 7. The method of claim 1,wherein said steps a) and b) are performed by a domain name registeringentity.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein said steps a) and b) areperformed by said proxy registration service provider.
 9. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising a step of: c) informing said registrant thatsaid domain name transfer notice was declined.
 10. A method, executed onone or more computers, comprising the steps of: a) offering a domainname private registration service registering, using the contactinformation of a proxy registration service provider, a domain name to acustomer, b) receiving a request from a customer for said domain nameprivate registration service, c) applying said domain name privateregistration service to said domain name, d) offering a domain namehijack protection service, e) receiving a request from said customer forsaid domain name hijack protection service for said domain name, f)applying said domain name hijack protection service to said domain name,g) receiving, via a proxy email address stored in a WHOIS record andwhich differs from an actual email address of said customer, a domainname transfer notice for said domain name h) declining said domain nametransfer notice, and i) notifying said customer that said domain nametransfer notice was declined.